THE DESERT DOG BLOG: BOEDKER'S PARENTS ENJOYING SON'S FAST RIDE

I always take note of the people who come out to watch the Coyotes practice. I see a lot of the same faces each day, but sometimes I see a new one or two.

On Friday, I noticed an unfamiliar woman taking photos of rookie Mikkel Boedker as he skated with teammates at the Alltel Ice Den in Scottsdale. Once she dropped her camera away from her face, it was easy to figure out who she was.

“I enjoy watching Mikkel play hockey,” said Boedker's mother, Lene, whose face strongly resembles her son's. "Of course I'm proud, but I'm just so happy for him. This is his dream come true.”

Boedker’s parents, Lene and Jesper, made the trip to Phoenix from their home in Denmark to watch their 18-year old son play NHL games in person. After watching him score his first two goals on the Internet in the wee hours of the night, they were fortunate enough to see him score a goal in Thursday night’s victory over Washington at Jobing.com Arena.

They both told me they are very, very surprised Mikkel, whom the Coyotes drafted in June, has reached the NHL so quickly.

Jesper, a metal worker, says it's surreal watching Mikkel play games in the middle of the night on his computer and then waking up and going to work.

“I have to pinch myself in the arm because suddenly he's playing with all the big guys in the NHL," Jesper said. "We'll watch the games from four o'clock in the morning until six, sleep for half an hour, then go to work. Then, when I get to work I’m thinking to myself 'Did I really just see Mikkel in the NHL or was I dreaming.'"

Lene, a nurse, says the sports media in Denmark, a country in which soccer and handball rule, loves the story.

“Right now he's on the television and in the papers every day," she said. "It's amazing because hockey is nothing in Denmark. I think we have like 19 rinks in the country for five million people... We were hoping he could play maybe just a few games in the NHL this year and that would have been huge. This has been amazing."

Kyle Turris centered a line with tough guys Tood Fedoruk and Brian McGrattan, and that line will stay together for Saturday’s home game against Calgary.

“I feel really comfortable between them,” the rookie center said. “ They're huge guys and they take a lot of pressure off me, and the defense is worried about them hitting them sometime, so it gives me lots of space ”

Here are a few injury updates:

•Defenseman Jonas Ahnelov, who was on track to make the roster before injuring a finger late in training camp, has been skating with teammates in the American Hockey League and is just about ready to start practicing.

•Center Joel Perrault, who suffered a concussion in a shinny game just before training camp, today received clearance to resume riding a stationary bike. Perrault has been symptom-free for two weeks.

Nobody I spoke to after Friday's practice had ever seen a puck shatter like the one that shattered after captain Shane Doan banged it off the glass during Thursday’s win over Washington.

Coyotes radio analyst Tyson Nash got some big laughs when he joked that his hands were so hard as a player that he used to shatter pucks all the time.